The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-06-13
Seeding with Oats.


LEGATION, but as an evidence of good faith.
Seeding with Oats.
FL. Stewart, of North Carolina, writes to
the Country Gentleman on how to get a
good crop of oats and a good stand of clover
at the same time. He says: II remember a
crop of oats grew in Pennsylvania in 1864;
ON reference to my record l find ten acres
gave me 7s3 bushels, measured from the
threshing machine. The straw was feet
tall and the grain weighed AZ pounds to the
bushel. This was from seed procured from
Scotland, called the Angus oats. The land
was well MANFRED in February. Twenty
large sled-loads per acre were spread on the
snow and left until April, when it was
plowed under with 27-inch lap fuIrow, laid
SO that the soil and the manure laid in alter
nate layers, sloping AS. A thorough har-
owing mixed the manure and soil very
wenly, and the seed was sown right after
the harrow, and Immediately covered in,
with a second harrow following the sowing
The narrowing, l remember, was very thor
oughly done, tapping two-thirds every turn,
so that the ground was stirred three times.
While the first harrow was getting ahead
and making room for more oats, Invent back
and sowed the clover and grass seed on the
fresh, mellow soil. / was then an advocate
as am now-of liberal sowing and used
peck of each to the acre.
The oats We're sown at the rate of two
bushels to the acre, just twenty bushels on
the ten acres. When the oats were cut the
D ground was covered green with clover, not
1 spear of timothy was to be seen, and it
was pastured off by a flock of sheep, off and
on, until the winter. The next year made
twenty-five tons of hay, estimated in the
hay shed at 700 cubic feet solidly packed IS
feet high in the shed, for ton. The timothy
scarcely showed, the clover was so rank,
until the third year.
The same year Isowed timothy and clover
OIL July IL with buckwheat, and had an ex-
cellent catch, much better than had the
year after on fall wheat, seeded in late
snow in April.
Since then have frequently sown clover
alone, and with timothy and orchard grass,
with oats, and never had failure Two
years ago sowed clover and timothy with
oats here in North Carolina, and the next
fall Prof Roberts, of Cornell Agricultural
College, was here and saw the clover, and
thought it as good as any he had seen else
where. Last summer from two and one
half acres / cut seven loads, about half a ton
each, of hay the first cutting, and four the
second cutting, and left heavy aftermath
on the ground Four years ago | sowed
twenty acres of clover and timothy with
buckwheat here in North Carolina, and never
had a better catch. The first cutting was
rather light on account of an unexampled
dry time; but last summer the yield was a
full one, and this spring the field looks prom
ising for third excellent crop. have just
finished seeding an eight-acre field of oats
with clover and mixed grasses, and the
young oats and clover both promise to turn
out very satisfactorily. ! have sown clover
with millet in July, with turnips in August
and am now getting about ten acres ready
to sow with millet and seed with clover, or
chard grass and meadow fescue in June, and
some newly cleared land will be sown with
buckwheat and seeded with clover in July.
Thus have, think, very fully tried the
possibilities of sowing clover with various
crops and am able to say that there is moth
ing in the oat crop-or any other crop-itself
to prevent the successful seeding of clover
with it.
My observation, for many years. has been
that no other crop is so poorly managed as
oats. The corn stubble, exhausted by the
corn crop is roughly plowed, poorly har
rowed and the oats barely covered. One can
not justly look for oats to succeed with this
treatment l have long ago made up my
mind, and so expressed myself in these col
umnS several years ago, that oats were an
exhaustive crop. And so it is, if 20 or IS
bushels per acre, weighing 40 to As pounds
are taken from the land. With such an ex-
haustive crop, taking more from the land
than so bushels of wheat per acre. the soil
must be rich and thoroughly well titled to
have anything to spare for crop of clover
and grass / have found that clover will
not grow on poor soil; that it cannot get
something from nothing any more than other
crops and if a farmer expects to get good
stand of clover with oats he must treat the
oats exceedingly well, and at least as well as
awheat crop is used when that is sown down
with clover and grass. But with an ordi-
nary crop of oats, of say 45 or 80 bushels
Pei acre, Uut SOil u eAHtlSltu Vi dDOub lie
same amount of fertility as by 80 bushels of
wheat. Few farmers think of manuring the
land for oats. Now, anything have learned
is that it pays to feed every crop in some
way or other, either by manure or fertilizers,
orby pasturing sheep or by blowing in clover
1t is a fortunate thing that we are 50 well
supplied with fertilizers, so that every crop
may get some nutriment to enable it to live
and grow profitably. Much is written and
-zsA about the poor business of farming. No
doubt much OF it is true. Bat there is a
s~ason for it. The farmers arL not liberal
enough with their land. 1.-THE liberal soul
shall be made fat said Solomon, and mod
ern farmers should make this guiding and
controlling principle in their work, espe-
cially when they want to seed down grass
and clover with oats, or with any other CROP
for clover at least requires TO be fed until its
large, long roots are able to find food for
itself, and in poor soil it pcrishes long before
1t has a root of any considerable size or is
able to 60 down foot into the soil.
Hay in Florida.